It's time to come home
by osilly
Summary: Ichigo Rukia


It's time to come home.

Bleach characters Ichigo/Rukia

Rated PG

Spoilers May contain spoilers, but it's minor, and so I hope.

In the midst of a rude awakening, I found myself staring into the darkness of the night. The only light I could see illuminated from the alarm clock, 3 AM it read, right on cue I thought. The rain was still hitting hard at the window shield, and the sound of thunder pounded at my eardrums.

Eventually, the aura of the night would promptly bring me back into the world of dreams, where flights of imagination freely intertwined and mingled with the prospects of reality.

And night after night, the same old nightmare would plague me, the one where I can see her falling, feel her drifting and there I stood, unable to grasp the situation, unable to move, unable to catch her. Ever since that nightmare, the feeling of emptiness and calamity never seized to subside. And only when the light of day breaks, would I wake to face another empty tomorrow without her.

"Only for a little bit," she said.

"I'll be back so don't worry," she assured me.

"Don't wait up," she demanded.

Its been two months since she left for Soul Society, and I've been going out of my mind trying to pretend that everything was alright without her. Ishida was the first to figure it out and I should have known that it would all shine through; I was never the one to hide things from other people. Now I'm left wondering if it was my body language, or my facial expression that gave it away. Then again, with the way that i've been acting lately, I guess it was as simple as having "I miss her" written across my forehead in permanent marker.

"She'll be back though right?" Ishida questioned without batting an eye away from his latest eccentric sewing project.

"It's not like she has a reason to stay in soul society, she's lost almost all of her spiritual power and she's practically a human now, what use would she be there?"

Leaning against the classroom door irritated, I tried my best to answer his stupid question without giving him any indications that I've been a messed for the past two month.

"How the hell am I suppose to know, she hasn't mentioned anything to me ever since we got back! And why would I bother to even ask, whatever goes on in that head of hers is none of my business."

After closely examining his seemingly perfect stitching job, he diverted his attention in my direction and with a wide grin on his face, he blissfully taunted.

"You're just scared that she'll say something that you don't want to hear."

Standing my ground, I quickly barked back at the four-eye geek, "Like what!"

"Well…… like, she's not happy here."

Walking home that day, I haven't given much thought to what Ishida said in class, thinking about his words would just make me more paranoid than I already was, but the thought never did slip my mind. Maybe she wasn't happy here after all, maybe this isn't where she belonged, who am I to tie her here when her heart lies elsewhere?

Looking up at the cloudy skies, I could sense that it was going to be another long and restless night.

She won't return tonight I thought to myself, she won't be returning tomorrow night or even the next night after that. It's okay though, just as long as she returns home someday.

The clock hits three and I'm wide-awake for the 5th time this week, and again my mind begins to wander. I didn't realize it then, but it was more than clear that she has left a mark on me and maybe it was more of a burden than anything else, but no matter the new found uncertainty, her happiness would be the first and last thing on my mind tonight.

Waking up late one night, I heard the sound of dripping water and footsteps near my bed. Quickly hurling myself out of bed, I grabbed my sword ready to hack the first thing that came into plain view. And there she stood, soaked from head to toe.

When she realized that I was wide-awake holding a sword in my hand, she quickly snatched it away from me and placed it on the desk closest to her. Crossing her arms, she fired at me without acknowledging the fact that it was 3 AM in the morning and most of the neighbourhood was asleep.

"What the hell Ichigo! It has raining hail Mary's outside and you locked your window, how the hell was I suppose to get in genius? I had to bust open the window lock, so you might want to take a look at that in the morning."

Standing there staring at her in confusion, I must have looked like a lost child with my eyes fixated on her, as if she was a complete stranger in a bizarre dream.

"Just stay where you are until I can find you a towel, you're frigging dripping water all over the floor idiot! And keep your voice down damnit, normal people are asleep at this hour."

"Then why aren't you asleep?" She asked with a curious look on her face.

Tossing a towel at her, I avoided the question by yelling at her for not letting me know how long she would be gone.

Drying herself off, she looks up at me and angrily states, "Don't tell me that you were worried Ichigo, I specifically told you that I was going to visit ni-sama and that tattooed freak, Renji. Also, I remember telling you that I was coming back, and not to lock the God damn window!"

Now trapped, I couldn't do anything but shake my head in defeat, because like always, she was right.

Turning my back to her, I suddenly mumbled something.

"Are you happy here Rukia?"

I don't know what prompted me to abruptly ask that question, but its been stuck in the back of my mind for some time now and I needed answers.

After what seemed like an eternity, she averted her eyes away from me and quietly responded, "What kind of a question is that, if I wasn't happy here I wouldn't have come back you idiot, think before you ask a question."

Content with her answer, I grinned to myself, knowing quite well that I think too much for my own good.

"Say Ichigo, I'm sorry if I worried you but get use to it, I never said it would be easy living with me."

"Correction, you're the one who's living with me idiot!"

Turning around, I could see a frank smile on her face as she retreated back to her, ummm, my, ummmm, our closet. I should have known better than to expect a formal explanation or answer from her, somehow she always manages to take short cuts around her response when she's faced with sentimental questions. But at the time, I didn't need any formal answers from her; the only answer I was looking for was finally back in the closet right where it/she belonged.

_The alarm clock now reads 3:30 AM, thirty minutes ago was when the rain stopped, thirty minutes ago was when the nightmares ended, thirty minutes ago was when she returned home._


End file.
